§ Colonel YATEasked whether, in view of the fact that the reorganisation scheme for the Government of India Political Department was published in the "Gazette" of India, dated 2nd September, 1911, he will cause effect to be given to the suggestion contained in the Secretary of State's Dispatch No. 15, dated 4th March, 1910, that officers of the Bombay Political Department below the rank of second grade political agents shall receive substantially the same terms as may be fixed for corresponding grades in the Political Department of the Government of India; and, with further reference to that same dispatch, can he say why political agents, first and second grade, under the Bombay Government should be excluded from the benefits resulting from the scheme for the Government of India Department, these appointments being admittedly similar in all respects?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe Secretary of State's dispatch, to which the hon. Member refers, is not a public document, but one which conveys in a confidential form 1816 his instructions relative to reorganisation. The Secretary of State is not aware how the hon. and gallant Member is in a position to quote from it. He must refuse to discuss the terms of a dispatch the publication of which, or any part of which, except with his sanction and as an official paper, is a breach of official decorum.